News Alert: Scientists have proven the Bible False

News Alert: Scientists have proven the Bible False

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.Genesis 1:14-20Below is the view of the universe as ancient Hebrews and early Christians would have seen it.

Notice that the sun, moon, and stars hang from the firmament, a canopy or ceiling above the earth.

So with this view of the universe in mind, let’s look at the story of the Ascension as told by the author of the Book of Acts:

The Ascension of Jesus

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:6-11If you lived in the first century AD and believed that heaven was just on the other side of the firmament or “canopy/ceiling” above the earth, then it would be very consistent with your worldview to believe that if Jesus was going to return to heaven, all he had to do was to ascend past the clouds and he would soon reach the “ceiling” of the firmament, to which are hung the planets, the sun, and moon, and he then would pierce the firmament to enter heaven. And if one can look up and see the planets and stars, then these heavenly objects must be within a day’s travel time. You would know this by common sense: if you can see a mountain in the distance, chances are you can reach it in a day’s time. So believing that Jesus could ascend to heaven, at a speed slow enough for his disciples to watch him ascend into the clouds, would be completely consistent with this world view.The problem for the Bible, and for Christians who believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of the Creator, is that this worldview has been proven false by modern science. There is no firmament. Jesus could not have reached the outer reaches of the universe to enter heaven moving at a speed at which humans could watch him ascend. Scientists have demonstrated that for a rocket or space ship to reach the next closest galaxy to our own, the Andromeda Galaxy, it would take two million LIGHT YEARS to get there! Unless Jesus entered a tractor beam once he got into the clouds, a tractor beam that “beamed him up” to heaven like Captain Kirk would regularly do on Star Trek…Jesus…at this very moment…is in outer space, putting along, somewhere between earth and the Andromeda Galaxy. Bombshell! Jesus hasn’t made it to heaven yet! Jesus is not sitting at the right hand of God the Father as the Bible claims.Thus, scientists have proven the Bible false.Trust science, my friends, not the scientifically ignorant superstitions and legends of ancient peoples, nor their holy books, full of preposterous supernatural claims.

5 thoughts on “News Alert: Scientists have proven the Bible False”

Hi Gary. I hate to disappoint you, but scientists have proved nothing of the sort. I don’t believe the Bible is inerrant, but even if I did the science you allude to is no threat to that view. You see, you are not the first to think of this. CS Lewis, an expert in ancient literature and language, had this to say more than 70 years ago:

Theology certainly shares with poetry the use of metaphorical or symbolical language. The first Person of the Trinity is not the Father of the Second in a physical sense. The Second Person did not come “down” to earth in the same sense as a parachutist, nor reascend into the sky like a balloon, nor did he literally sit at the right hand of the Father. Why, then, does Christianity talk as if all these things did happen? The agnostic thinks that it does so because those who founded it were quite naively ignorant and believed all these statements literally …….

What did the early Christians believe? Did they believe that God really has a material palace in the sky and that he received his Son in a decorated state chair placed a little to the right of his own? — or did they not? The answer is that the alternative we are offering them was probably never present to their minds at all. As soon as it was present, we know quite well which side of the fence they came down. As soon as the issue of anthropomorphism was explicitly before the Church in, I think, the second century, anthropomorphism was condemned. The Church knew the answer (that God has no body and therefore couldn’t sit in a chair) as soon as it knew the question. But till the question was raised, of course, people believed neither the one answer nor the other. There is no more tiresome error in the history of thought than to try to sort our ancestors on to this or that side of a distinction which was not in their minds at all. You are asking a question to which no answer exists.

It is very probable that most (almost certainly not all) of the first generation of Christians never thought of their faith without anthropomorphic imagery, and that they were not explicitly conscious, as a modern would be, that it was mere imagery. But this does not in the least mean that the essence of their belief was concerned with details about a celestial throne room. That was not what they valued, or what they were prepared to die for. Any one of them who went to Alexandria and got a philosophical education would have recognised the imagery at once for what it was, and would not have felt that his belief had been altered in any way that mattered.

You can read the entire paper, Is Theology Poetry? online, and I think you would find it useful and interesting.

If you want to read the Bible (or any other piece of literature) to mock it or misunderstand it, you can always do so. But those who try to read it thoughtfully and taking account of the culture and history behind it probably won’t be impressed by what we see as rather silly accusations, I’m sorry.

So are you saying that the Bible’s supernatural claim of an Ascension (the levitation of a human body into outer space) should be believed as metaphorical, but, the Bible’s supernatural claim that a first century Jewish prophet’s decomposing corpse was reanimated by an invisible god, walked out of his grave with a superman-like body that could walk through locked doors, appear and disappear to followers, and sit down to eat a broiled fish lunch with his buddies—should be accepted as a real, historical event??

re: “I don’t believe the Bible is inerrant, but even if I did the science you allude to is no threat to that view.”

did the catholic church put galileo under house arrest, or not? was the bible interpreted by many/most in the church at that time as being geocentric, not heliocentric, or not? did they base that geocentric belief on the bible, or not?

we put a man on the moon 20+ years before the catholic church admitted that that they were wrong about galileo, ~400+ years after the fact. you can't pretend that a large number of christians did not interpret the bible as proof of a geocentric universe, and persecute those who disagreed.

today, i think everyone, even fundamentalists, believe in heliocentrism. but by doing so, they sweep under the rug of the implications of the galileo affair. namely, that even if the bible was inerrant, it's still possible to be misinterpreted, even for long periods of time. (which makes it essentially errant in practice, it would seem.)

re: ” Any one of them who went to Alexandria and got a philosophical education …”

and what percent of the population was that? how did the average believer think, not the elite educated class?

re: “But those who try to read it thoughtfully and taking account of the culture and history behind it …”

so what percentage of the evangelical population of the usa today takes into account the “culture and history” behind the bible? given the huge arguments that many christians mounted against the civil rights laws in the 1960s, and interracial marriage, and now gay rights, and evolution, i think it's fair to say that there is a sizable portion of the general population that does take the bible very literally, and does not take into account the culture and history of the time.

so, while perhaps gary's argument does not apply to your views, i think there is a very large percentage of the population that it does apply to. and reading the comments on various blogs by christian fundamentalists, i believe that gary's arguments are an accurate reflection of what many of those people's actual views are, even if they are not yours.

so, while you come here to comment on gary's blog to tell him he doesn't understand, do you similarly go to the blogs of the fundamentalists, and point out that they are not taking into account the “culture and history” of their inerrant bible? methinks you doth protest too much.

I’m not saying that at all. Have you read the ascension accounts lately?

Luke 24:51: “While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”Acts 1:9: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”

You’ll notice straightaway that there’s no mention of “outer space” in either of these accounts, and certainly nothing like “outer reaches of the universe to enter heaven”. Luke (the writer in both cases) simply says “he left them”, he was “taken up” and “a cloud hid him”. The end result was he returned to God in heaven. Luke’s account is sober and simple. The only metaphorical thing in it, as the CS Lewis quote indicates, is the idea that upwards movement was necessary to get to heaven. So you have been exaggerating, and it is hard to take those exaggerated comments seriously.

Likewise the resurrection accounts are generally literal and I find them believable and historical.

“When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” –the first chapter of Acts

I don’t see your point.

Of course the author of Luke and Acts didn’t talk about outer space. He believed there was a canopy over the earth, a firmament. However, the simple reading of the text indicates that heaven is upward above the earth and that Jesus ascended to get there. The text also says that the disciples watched Jesus “as he was going”.

Bottom line: If heaven is up, beyond the firmament as many verses in Genesis, Job, and other OT books claim, and Jesus was going up to it slower than the speed of light…Jesus ain’t there yet!!

I get the feeling that you are a believer in the modern concept that Heaven and Hell are in another “dimension”. If so, you have no biblical basis for believing this other than the unease of being trapped in a corner over the literal reading of your ancient holy book.

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